Lorena, Kelly, Christian, and I took Uber over to Ted’s Bulletin Restaurant for a late breakfast, then walked to the Capitol Mall to see the Capitol Christmas tree and to visit the Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. We ate to much, but also got in a lot of steps in the rather brisk weather. I have to admit that I prefer the more traditional art museums over modern art museums like the Hirshorn.
We flew to Washington, D.C. the day after we returned from driving home from the graduation commencement in Nebraska. It was pretty helter-skelter for a bit, but now all of us are ensconced in Kelly’s beautiful and very festive apartment for Christmas. So far, we got to meet Kelly’s boyfriend, Adam for the first time (a very impressive and nice man) and held a party for several friends including Adam and his aunt and uncle who live here in D.C. Uncle Andy and I are running fans–watching not doing–and from the same era–he graduated high school in 1974, I in 1973–so we had a grand time talking about stuff only people from that era would understand. I really hope to see all of them again soon–maybe in Texas. Today, if we get out of bed in time, we are going out to lunch and then on to the Museum of the Bible. We plan to celebrate Christmas tomorrow evening because Lorena, Christian and I all fly out early Christmas morning.
We met Kelly’s boyfriend, Adam for the first time, last night at a little party in her apartment. We plan to be together again tonight along with Adam’s aunt and uncle. It was a pleasant evening and we were very impressed. He seems to be a very thoughtful person, both in the sense of kindness and in the sense of consideration of ideas and situations. We are very much looking forward to the evening tonight, too. In the meantime, I have found a great place to work with a beautiful street-level view of Washington, D.C. in its fall/winter glory.
One of the nicest parts of our Thanksgiving celebration this year was putting up the Christmas tree. Then, several times during the weekend, all the “kids” sat around in the living room and made ornaments to hang on it. It all brought back great memories of my childhood and decorating the tree with Grandpa Milo, Grandma Sarah, and all the siblings. I hope we get to do this again next year with the same crew and maybe some additions.
With Thanksgiving and our first Sunday morning of even numbered months worship meeting that we host at our home behind us, we are in a week of calm before we start traveling, entertaining, and celebrating here in Texas for part of Christmas and New Year’s, in Washington, D.C. for part of Christmas, and at University of Nebraska–Lincoln for my graduation. That really good part of all this is that we get to spend most of it with Kelly and Christian. They are flying out to Lincoln for the graduation–Lorena and I will drive up before the graduation to pick them up at the Omaha airport. We have Honest Abe’s and one of the Omaha’s spectacular steak houses on the agenda along with the graduation celebrations. Then we head back to Texas before flying to Washington, D.C. for a few days for Christmas. When we return home, Lorena and I plan to go to Istanbul sometime before the New Year to try out a restaurant Ralph, Lorena, and I stopped at for a drink during Ralph’s visit for Thanksgiving.
This might have been the best Thanksgiving ever. At the very least it compares favorably to when we invited all my siblings and their families, my folks, our cousins, Tim and David Mecum, and Uncle Warren Bone to our place for several years when we lived in Albany. There were not as many people here, but we did have a dozen–way up from the last two or three years. Ralph and Olivia were a stellar addition to our crew which included Kelly, Christian, and Grandma Conchita, and Rigo and his family. After Thanksgiving we had a couple of days just with the kids. That was absolutely stellar. We are hoping everyone returns next year an more. We grew last years event which was nine people so we are going in the right direction. It was sad to see Kelly and Christian head to the airport just now, but we are scheduled to see them again in Omaha on December 14 and then again at Christmas time. We are working at reducing the time between when we see each other as much as possible.
Grandma Conchita has now displayed my dissertation in the highest place of honor in the dining room. I am very gratified. She is not shy about her pride in her children and I count myself a very fortunate man to be on her list of approved people. She was here for a few weeks and we are very happy she was here, but she very much likes to be in her own home. Hopefully we will be able to get down there again very soon.
Back at the coffee bar in Granbury while Lorena, Kelly, and Christian shop. Love this place.
Thanksgiving was phenomenal this year. The addition of Ralph and Olivia injected a ton of energy and we hope they can make it back again next year. They are leaving a little later today. Grandma Conchita went with Rigoberto and family to meet with Jorge in Houston where they will hang out with cousins for a day or two before they she returns to Monterrey with Jorge and his family and Rigo and clan head home to Austin. Only Kelly and Christian will be with us know for a few days more. It will be nice to have some time with them alone.
I got up at about six this morning to read my Bible, drink some coffee and enjoy the morning before all the bustle and noise associated with a Thanksgiving celebration for a dozen people gets started. I get to cook the turkey again this year, but it is a lot bigger one than I have ever cooked before–25 lbs. I think we (and when I say we, I mean I) probably made a mistake by getting one so big. We really did not need one that big and my gut feel is one that big might not be as tender as the 14-15 lb. turkey we usually get. Still, it is going to be fun. In addition to our own kids, Grandma Conchita, and our great Atlanta friends, Lorena’s brother, Rigo and his wife and three kids will be up for the evening, too. We have WAY too much food and there is really no way for most of them to take any of it along with them when they leave because they are either flying home or driving a long way to some place other than home. All that good food definitely is going to be a temptation. I have already put my weight-loss program on hiatus until everyone leaves.
The first wave of Thanksgiving visitors have arrived. Ralph, Olivia, Kelly, and Christian are here and we are having just a great time. The first event is to head out to a Mexican grocery store to stock up on cooking supplies.
It is a great joy to have Grandma Conchita with us for Thanksgiving this year. We can hardly believe that, after quite a few years of smaller gatherings, it appears we will have, God willing, a full dozen for Thanksgiving dinner. Lorena’s brother, Tio Rigo, and this family who are now living in the Austin area will be with us for the second year, but also Ralph and Olivia from Atlanta/Sweden will be with us. Ralph is an amazing cook, so we are hoping to co-opt him to create some of his specialties. Also, they are huge art buffs so we are hoping to take them to see the Kimbell and Sid Richardson Art Museums in Fort Worth. Both of them are spectacular. We also want to go to the Cowgirl Museum and there is much more, but we are not sure how much time there will be to do it all.
God willing, we will be up at University of Nebraska–Lincoln one month from now getting ready to walk in the graduation ceremony. I keep checking my student account to see if I have missed anything, but nothing new has come up for a long time, so I think I am ready to go. It is a little bit of a hard thing because the kids are planning to come home for Christmas, but that comes right after the graduation, so we think they might just watch online so they don’t have to either fly twice in a week or miss too much work.
My gifted brother-in-law Lauro Pedraza was invited to show one of his engravings at an event in Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Here is how it is described:
76 artistas y sus creaciones gráficas en exposición. Están cordialmente invitados a la III Edición de la Reseña de la Gráfica Nuevo León – 2023. Inauguración el jueves 9 de noviembre a las 7:00 p.m. Museo de Guadalupe N.L. Mtro. Israel Cavazoa Garza
Lauro is getting invited to these kinds of events more and more often and at a higher and higher level. He did the above ink drawing of our son, Christian, when he finished his Ph.D. at Arizona State. I hoping to commission him to make it into an engraving for our house in San Pedro.
Christian gets in a well-deserved day of hiking at Big Sur after his big presentation on Monday. I hope he gets a chance to see the aquarium in Monterey (the other, less famous Monterey with only one r). That is truly a beautiful part of the world. He is getting together with friends for a few days next and then head on back to Boston.
November 1 is not too early to start planning for Thanksgiving. We are hoping, God willing, that this year’s Thanksgiving will be one for the ages. Our expected visitors this year include Grandma Conchita (Lorena is flying down to pick her up in Monterrey next week), Tio Rigo and his family (driving up from Austin for a couple of days), our dear friends Ralph and his beautiful and talented daughter Olivia (flying out from Atlanta), and, of course, Kelly and Christian (flying in from Washington, D.C. and Boston). Most of the crew will be here to visit some of the amazing Fort Worth offerings (The Kimbell, The Fort Worth Zoo and Botanical Gardens, etc.). I found this photo of Lauro and Conchita from almost exactly 20 years ago when we all visited Cabo San Lucas together. It would have been great to have them both here for this Thanksgiving, but having Conchita is a huge blessing on its own.
One of my favorite parts of Lorena’s trip to Cambridge to visit Christian was that they went down to a pumpkin patch and the liked it so much they went back again. Christian got a pumpkin and carved it up for Halloween. It came out great. We used to do this every year and we really ought to take it up again. The art of pumpkin carving is way underrated. But that was not all. When Lorena showed me the pictures I remembered how cool he has his apartment set up. It is pretty small, but also pretty amazing in terms of both style and utility. The best part was the end product.
Lorena brought me this spectacular linen shirt Christian got me for my birthday. LOVE it. It looks OK now, but will look even better when I am down another ten pounds. I am going to show it off for the first time at Thanksgiving, but my main plan is to get some nice, new jeans and wear them to my graduation in December. Christian truly is a thoughtful man. I am just thankful he is my son. Can’t wait to see both Kelly, Christian, Conchita, and our old friends Ralph and Olivia from Atlanta via Sweden. Maybe Ralph will not look down on me for my lack of Euro-trash clothes!!!
Christian ran Lorena up through Maine and New Hampshire to see the leaves, a new lighthouse (Nubble Lighthouse in York, Maine) and chase down a hamburger from a “best of” list in Portsmouth. The leaves were only mediocre but the hamburger and the light house were nothing short of spectacular. I get to suffer through another three days here in Texas without Lorena, but it surely seems like she is having a great time. In the meantime, Christian got a new (to him) Surface Pro tablet that makes me think I want one myself. He got it just in time to take with him to be big conference on the west coast. It will give himself something to do on that six hour flight from Boston to California.
Lorena and Christian are having too much fun in Boston. There is no way I want to miss the next trip.The first thing they did is went further north into New England to pick apples, eat fresh-made donuts, and view the leaves. Supposedly, Lorena went there to give Christian a hand while he prepares for a conference where a paper will be published at the end of October, but it surely looks like they are having too much fun for that. The last thing they sent me was this steak and potatoes picture that certainly did not help my diet very much. Well, the whole crew should be here for Thanksgiving, so at least I have that to look forward to.
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